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This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA.
The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore,
The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them.
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Bechtel does not, and did not, run any of the US nuke labs. UC was, and is, the controlling partner in the LLCs that operate LLNS and LANS.

Bechtel, like all large corporations that are willing to take on high risk, first-of-a-kind projects, has had its share of successes and failures over the decades. The total and complete failure of LANS can not be blamed on Bechtel. Sorry to spoil the Bechtel-bashing party with facts.

BN, on the other hand, brought real progress to the test site. High risk? Hardly. They learned that the name of the game was maintaining and increasing process compliance, from which the vast majority of their fee was generated. Engineering was treated as if it were some immutable quantity, something that was magically and patiently waiting in a box ready to be released. BN managed the decline of capability, and little else.

"Bechtel, like all large corporations that are willing to take on high risk, first-of-a-kind projects,"

UC does not take any of the fee, and what risk does Bechtel take? They got free money for or 10 or more years for doing nothing. To Bechtel LANS has been a phenomenal success in terms of profit with no real investment or risk. LANS has only been a failure for LANL, DOE and the people of the United States. Some could say that Haliburton was failure in Iraq as they did little of what they where suppose to do, however to Haliburton it was a huge success as they made enormous profits and had to do very little. See how this works. Bechtel has no failures only profits it is the customers have failures, just asked the people in Bolivia about the "risks" that Bechtel took.

UGT was a relic of the past when BN was there. The current M&O, led by Younger, is broadly viewed as a disaster. He is the one that led the charge to rename the location a 'laboratory' and it was not succesful.

It doesn't matter what you found on the web. You can find anything on the web, and much of it is wrong. UC is perfect. UC can do no harm. UC ran the labs for 70 years and they were perfect. There was never a single problem when UC ran the labs. All problems started after UC, and all problems will go away as soon as UC is put back in charge. UC will run the labs for zero, that's right zero, dollars.

The fee is pennies for both UC and Bechtel. Hate to tell you. Bechtel came in so that UC could keep the contract. It was a favor. You should look into the history of the UC and Bechtel. In fact, there may even be an engineering school named after one of the bechtel owners. Nothing really changed with the contract change. 99.5% of the people are the same. Culture is the same. It is not a problem with science but instead how the middle and executive management think they are above the law. They truly think they are better than having to follow what the regulators tell them to do, in writing.

Now LANS is out, and NNSA gets another crack at reducing their liability through benefit reductions. This is what we should be talking about. The pension program will get frozen. Medical retirement benefit will likely go away. Be careful what you wish for.

You are just delusional, really really delusional and have no idea what you are talking about.

"The fee is pennies for both UC and Bechtel. Hate to tell you. Bechtel came in so that UC could keep the contract. It was a favor. "

BS, no amount of profit is too low for Bechtel, they also get more connections to the government and yes they massively leverage their profits even there own workers will tell you this. Just look at the book Friends In High Places: The Bechtel Story : The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World Laton McCartney (Author)

"Nothing really changed with the contract change. 99.5% of the people are the same. Culture is the same."

That is total BS and just shows how much full of you are. The whole culture of the lab changed and literally everyone believes that that the lab is now utterly different than it was before 2006, there was a large turnover in the workforce anda bleeding of the top talent. The size of the lab shrunk andthe ratio of non-technical/technical staff went way up. There was some chart put on this very blog that showed that it went from 38% to currently 19%. Overhead rates went through the roof the number of level managers ballooned, and all signs of leadership vanished as these high level managers vanished into the echo chambers, information flows ceased and replaced with strange jargon that no one understands.

The biggest single change is that that attitude of the workforce has dramatically changed. Before 2006 people where passionate about the work, loved their work and saw it as a higher calling. Now it is just job that is slowly declining.

You do realize that Bechtel was on the board of regents? Right Hmmm... You do also realize they are by any account a 20-40 billion dollar company? This is chump change to them. This was a favor. They didn't need any more political influence and this one didn't help them at all. It probably hurt more than it helped. The only one this helped was UC.

You do not understand the scale you are dealing with. LANL does not provide political influence. LANL is just a blip in this space, not the center of the universe. They had the influence before they showed up. This has hurt their influence. Bechtel will be gone in two years and never even shed a tear.

As far as your other comments, some I agree but some is bull. There have always been echo chambers here. This is not new. The lab did not shrink in any proportion to the rest of the NWC. Check the other facilities before you throw that around. In fact the Labs total mission and budget has grown since 2006 due to consolidation and work for others. You gonna thank leadership for that or are you just gonna say in spite of leadership this happened. I personally don't care.

Now let me agree with you on one thing. Working here is a soul sucking endeavor. It has always been. This is outside of the science world you live in I guess. We non scientists have been dealing with stupid decisions, lack of strategy, and general BS for a LONG time. Way before transition.

You can try this "back in the day crap" with people who weren't or are not here but us who have been here know that the reason we put up with this BS for decades is because it is the only game in northern New Mexico and we DO believe in the overall mission.

Sorry to burst your little bubble but you have no idea what you are talking about. T

>You do realize that Bechtel was on the board of regents? Right Hmmm... You do also realize they are by any account a 20-40 billion dollar company? This is chump change to them. This was a favor. They didn't need any more political influence and this one didn't help them at all. It probably hurt more than it helped. The only one this >helped was UC.

False every dollar counts, every bit of political include counts, there are no favors only money.

>Working here is a soul sucking endeavor. It has always been.

False, everyone had passion about there work before 2006. There was always some low performers who complained but every organizations has them and it is hard to get rid of them in a place like LANL.

>As far as your other comments, some I agree but some is bull. There have always been echo chambers here. This is not new. The lab did not shrink in any proportion to the rest of the NWC. Check the other facilities before you throw that around. In fact the Labs total mission and budget has grown since 2006 due to consolidation and work for others

False, the lab shrink in terms of the number of employees. The extra money went into the extra management, the fee, the higher salaries for the added management.

>You can try this "back in the day crap" with people who weren't or are not here but us who have been here know that the reason we put up with this BS for decades is because it is the only game in northern New Mexico and we DO believe in the overall mission.

False, everyone who worked at the lab before the contact change believes things where better and more efficient. Again there are a few people who complain but these are the bitter low performers who blame everybody and everything but fail to realize it was always themselves to blame for their failure at life.

Make no mistake, your post are about you and you alone they have nothing to do with the lab, Northern New Mexico, Bechtel, or evil scientist. They are about you and as soon as you realize that you can move and grow.

"Bravo NK ! It wasn't a real H-nuke, but at least they tried some kind of boost !Dud or not, it's very concerning since their next test might be more successful.Maybe they're doing testing for another player that does not want to violate the NTB treaty ?"

Does anyone think that NK might be testing for China ? Maybe that's why China is going "light" on NK. No obvious complaints from China at the United Nations ?